Valdemar: draft at ‘everyone’s house’ was a metaphor – 02/02/2023 – Politics

The president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, told the Federal Police that the statement he made during an interview about the existence of draft proposals with a coup-like content held by authorities linked to the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) was a metaphor. .

He sought to downplay the documents, calling them “nonsense”. Valdemar stated that they did not have identification, that “visibly they made no sense” and crushed them.

The leader told the investigators that he had received two or three such proposals, then three or four. And he stated that he “has always been against the coup”.

The leader of the PL spontaneously handed over his cell phone to the police to be investigated. The statement took place, by order of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), after Valdemar said, in an interview with the newspaper O Globo, that he had already received coup drafts.

Valdemar also told investigators that he spoke in a “general way”, a “force of expression”, and that he did not want to defend anyone when he said that he also received documents like the one in the house of Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s former minister.

The party leader also sought to distance himself from Torres, with whom he said he had no relationship or participated in meetings. Valdemar stated that he was only in the ministry once in the four years of government.

A copy of a draft for Bolsonaro to decree a state of defense at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), in order to change the outcome of the elections, was seized by the PF at the home of the former Secretary of Public Security of the DF and former head of Justice of Bolsonaro.

In his testimony to the investigators, Valdemar also said that the coup proposals he received evoked article 142 of the Federal Constitution, an argument used by Bolsonarists to defend military intervention.

STF ministers, in monocratic decisions, have already ruled out the possibility of the Armed Forces being a moderating power, as the coup thesis defends, and said that this is not in the constitutional text. Supporters of the former representative, however, support this thesis.

Valdemar also removed his party and the former president from any relationship with the coup proposals. He stated that he never dealt with this subject in the PL, nor with Bolsonaro.

“[Valdemar disse] who believed that if he kept such a document, someone could say that he would be ‘in favor of the coup’. He also didn’t feel comfortable keeping these documents at home so that no one, including his family, would think he was up to something, which he had always been against the coup,” he said, when asked why he shredded the coup minutes.

Since Bolsonaro lost the election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), his supporters have refused to accept the result of the polls and have started to lead coup movements, calling for military intervention, in camps in the regions of Army barracks.

The acts culminated on January 8th, when coup-mongers vandalized the headquarters of the three Powers in Brasília. The episode led to the immediate arrest of more than a thousand people, in particular all those in front of the barracks. Many have been released, but the police have already identified more than 200 people who vandalized public buildings and are being detained.

Asked about the acts of January 8, Valdemar said that they happened due to “lack of security” in the Praça dos Três Poderes, without mentioning Anderson Torres, then secretary of security.

He also classified coup plotters as “animals”, who must be punished, and said that “these radical people” have no contact with the party, nor participate in PL events.

“[Valdemar disse que no dia 8] the problem was the lack of policing; that there are bad people everywhere; that what you need is strong policing; that there are ‘animals’ everywhere; that these people have to pay for it”, he said.

The leader was also questioned by the investigators regarding the initiative of the PL to legally question the result of the polls at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) — a movement explored by Bolsonarists, but which has no technical basis.

The acronym claimed that old ballot boxes were used and did not count votes given to then President Bolsonaro.

The president of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes, denied the party’s action aimed at invalidating votes cast in these ballot boxes and even blocked the accounts of the party fund and condemned Bolsonaro’s coalition, formed by PL, PP and Republicans, to pay a fine in the amount of of almost BRL 23 million for litigation in bad faith.

Afterwards, the magistrate agreed to withdraw the Republicans and the PP from the conviction, leaving only the PL of Valdemar.

To the PF, the president of the party said that he never had meetings with the company he hired to inspect the ballot boxes, and that he only did so at “the government’s insistence”. He further stated that, “as there was no evidence, he closed the matter”.

Jair Bolsonaro led the movement to challenge electronic voting machines throughout his term, especially in the last two years of his government.

Without scientific evidence, he attacked the electoral system and ended up being investigated by a TSE inquiry regarding a live in which he spoke about alleged fraud in electronic voting machines. Anderson Torres, then minister, also became investigated, for participating in the broadcast on social media.